David, aka GSGA, and I drove down to Philly on Tuesday, September 21, 2004, to catch SPIZM, and M.E.S.S. See the announcement here. I took a few photos. See them here.

SPIZM is a drum and bass group from Chicago consisting of David Marzalek, drum, and Pablo Pascoll, bass. David, aka SPIZ, is a member of electro-music.com. When he introduced himself on the forum, I checked out his web site and heard some amazing drumming. When I saw he was coming to play in Philly, I decided to make the gig. When I learned he was playing with M.E.S.S., also a member here, I was really charged. I recently met David, GSGA, here on the site too, only to find we live only about two miles apart. This was an electro-music.com nite.

Anyone who has hung around here for a while knows I'm not a big Drum 'N Bass fan. To me, it often seems very uninteresting, and often I find it boring. Well, listening to SPIZM has certainly changed my tune. These guys take DNB to a level I've never heard before.

Dave is a virtuoso drummer. He plays complex beats with incredible speed and precision. His beats are fascinating - patterns I used to think could be made only with complex drum and groove machines. I now know can be played beautiful on a modest acoustic trap set. On the unprocessed drums, these glitches, slips, and shuffles are glorious.

Pablo is a fine bass play - no surprise. He's equally at home on stand up as electric. He like to play very simple bass lines and wild convoluted avant garde explosions - at the same time. The result is interesting and fun.

Together Dave and Pablo dazzle their audience. We were carefully listen to every beat and note. I enjoyed their playing tremendously.

M.E.S.S.

M.E.S.S. played his computer. He almost exclusively plays loops. Anyone who has hung around here for a while knows I'm not a big looper fan. To me, it often seems very uninteresting, and often I find it boring.

Well, listening to M.E.S.S. has opened me up to this form of electro-music. Akili is always, excuse the expression, messing with the loops so that things are always changing even though the basic construction is always the loop. He runs several simultaneously. The different loops have contrasting timbres and meters. The music transitions from section to section almost continuously. The sounds are pleasant in interesting. There is almost always a beat going on, but it's rarely overpowering.

SPIZM and M.E.S.S. played a small set where they jammed together. It was quite good, as you might expect. Dave played amazing complex rhythmic patterns the synchronized with M.E.S.S.'s loops. It was fab...
SPIZM also played a set with a Sax player, a guest performer whose name I didn't get. Maybe someone can post his name in a reply post.

[Editor's note via PM from Spiz 23-sep-04:... the saxophone player is a chicago cat named Joe Grez, that plays tenor in my other project, Trioizm (which is also breakbeat/jungle oriented but more of a jazz feel...not so heavy as spizm, more fx on the electric bass as well). http://www.trioizm.com to get info and mp3's... ]

After the concert I realized that, thanks to SPIZM, I accept DNB as a classical music art form. With just acoustic drums and bass, it is as pure a musical expression as a string quartet. It's much louder though._________________--Howard
my music and other stuffLast edited by mosc on Thu Sep 23, 2004 3:55 pm; edited 1 time in total

Great to see you change your opinion on two types of music that you found lacking before. I love it when someone opens up my horizons a bit in a similar way - whether catching someone live or catching a truly great album in a genre I had preconceived notions of not liking. It's sort of a great experience. I've found the old 80/20 rule pretty much works in everything (or at least too many things to count) - for every great transcendent experience like maybe seeing Spizm... there's another batch of bands that will live up to your previous expectations on dnb of being uninteresting...

Speaking of drummers who can play things that I thought only machines could do - an old friend of mine could pull off syncopated bass drum rhythms (stutters/triplets/whatever) with one foot better then anyone else I'd heard using two feet - and once he got both feet going - wow - he was a freakin machine. Just fun to sit and listen to him let go and jam. He's in Mudvayne - different style of music - but even if you don't care for the music - listening to the drummer and the bass player is great fun.

The La Tazza show proved to me the networking power of
the internet and moreso- connecting with people/artists thru
forums (like electro-music).

This show also pulled together the DnBass scene from philly
which none of us expected! The basement was for Spizm &
MESS & upstairs was the weekly dnb nite with dj's/mc's.

My bassist, mr dp, found himself not only doing the spizm
improvisations/set but collaborating overtop MESS's loops
and soundscapes & actually sitting in on upright bass (!!!)
with the dnb dj's, which apparently was hot! I missed it
only because I got wrapped-up with MESS's music with
my sax player, joe, who sat in at various points throughout
the nite. The show just turned into the pulling together of
numerous scenes, and it all gelled somehow.

Yes, that event wouldn't have happened without electro-music.com. That's a fabulous feeling for me. It was all about openness, exploration and collaboration. Wonderful...

My camera is a Sony DSC-717 which is very strong in the low light shooting department. It can even shoot in total darkness by shining it's own infrared light. I wasn't using that mode when photographing this event. I was using the laser focus mode. The camera projects a bunch of red lines on the subject and it uses that to get a good auto focus. Often I turn this off because it can look like the artists are in the sights of some assassin's sniperscope. But, when I'm up and about moving around and obviously taking pictures, I turn it on because it makes for fast focus, and people easily realize the lights are coming from the camera. People in the future will no doubt be amazed that we used such primitive cameras in these dark ages._________________--Howard
my music and other stuff

I'm so glad Mosc and I got to see this. I've seen TONS of shows over the years, Punk/Hardcore/Indie/Noise/Electronic/Jazz, and I have to say without a doubt these guys were the best Drum/Bass combo I've ever seen. Pablo's playing was too fast and crazy to track. He could go from a chunky mellow groove to an all out spaz attack, instantly. Plucking the strings from the bridge, hitting them with a cig lighter?! Nuts.

SPIZ (Dave), if you are familiar with a little Pittsburgh band called DON CABALLERO... well, you kicked Damon Che's ass! I'm serious. He doesn't even come close. Dave has some mind-melting syncopations. And loud as HELL to boot.

Not to mention all the various improv senerios that were going on... Pablo/MESS especially.

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